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MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2013
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
ENTERTAINMENT
Charlie Sheen donates money for stranger's therapy dog
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MILWAUKEE — Charlie Sheen wired $10,000 to 15-year-old Teagan Marti and her family on Thursday for a therapy dog to help in her rehabilitation from injuries sustained when she plummeted 100 feet from a Wisconsin amusement park ride in 2010.
"I think he's a very kind person for helping me and my family and very generous." Marti said by phone from her home in Parkland, Fla.
Marti suffered brain, spine, pelvis and internal injuries in July 2010 when nets and air bags that catch riders on a free-fall ride failed to rise. She convinced her family to make the trip to Extreme World in Wisconsin Dells after seeing the ride, Terminal Velocity, on the Travel Channel.
She was hospitalized in Wisconsin and Florida for three months. She initially had no use of her arms or legs, but through physical therapy can walk again with the help of a walker.
Teagan Marti's mother, Julie Marti, said they are financially in trouble from the medical bills and insurance isn't covering physical therapy anymore. She had no idea how to pay for the English Golden Retriever puppy.
"I'm in such disbelief" her mother said. "I was crying. ... What a guy. What a guy"
The dog is trained to turn on lights, pick up objects and be the teen's constant companion.
Lucia Wilgus, of Eau Claire, Wisc., became friends with the Martis after hearing of the accident. She has spearheaded fundraising and helped find the dog.
She sent a letter to Sheen through Sheen's godfather, who is a Wilgus family friend. She estimated the training and related costs would be around $6,000.
Sheen said he decided to give more for extra costs. The request had a "personal vibe" since it came through his godfather, and "if there's a need for more, I told them to call me," he said.
"I like to pay it forward," Sheen said in a phone interview from Los Angeles.
He said he doesn't like to publicize most of his donations, but wanted to talk about this one to inspire others to donate.
Marti gets the dog on her birthday in September but hasn't made up her mind on a name.
"I think they should name the dog Charlie," Sheen joked.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
An English golden retriever puppy sits with her litter in Fond du Lac, Wis. She will be trained to become a therapy dog for a teenager who was severely injured in a fall from a Wisconsin amusement park ride in 2010. Actor Charlie Sheen said he's donating $10,000 for the dog's training and other expenses.
REVIEW
excess HOLLYWOOD review
--killing Osama bin Laden.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Melissa McCarthy plays an unlikely career criminal in "Identity Thief."
Melissa McCarthy falls into typecasting trap
Since her hilarious supporting turn in 2011's "Bridesmaids", Melissa McCarthy has become nearly inescapable.
The first time this fact really hit home for me was last December, during a screening of Judd Apatow's "This is 40," when the comedienne appeared as Catherine, a short-tempered parent who complains to the school principal after Debbie (Leslie Mann) makes an unfavorable comparison between Catherine's towedhead, buck-toothed son and musician Tom Petty. It's a throwaway part, with perhaps eight minutes of total screen time, but McCarthy uses those eight minutes to practically walk away with the movie, calling the attractive, affluent Debbie and her husband, Pete (Paul Rudd), a "bullsit bank commercial couple" andthreatening to kick them both in the throat for being ineffectual parents.
My enjoyment of that scene, and the even funnier mid-credits gag reel, was only diminished by the fact that I'd already seen McCarthy twice that same evening, in trailers for the now-released "Identity Thief", where McCarthy plays a chipper, foulmouthed criminal who steals Jason Bateman's credit card information, and director Paul Feig's "Bridesmaids" follow-up, "The Heat," where she plays a chipper, foulmouthed policewoman who teams up with Sandra Bullock, who plays a frazzled FBI agent. I understand she's also slated for a chipper, foulmouthed part in this May's "The Hangover: Part III". Having successfully defied expectations for a heavyset woman in a thin-centric industry, McCarthy musf now confront another Hollywood pit-fall: the double threat of becoming simultaneously typecast and overexposed.
If this happens, she'll be in good company. Actors like Ben Stiller, Julia Roberts, Adam Sandler, Bruce Willis and Owen Wilson have all been accused of playing too many similar roles. Quick, how many movies can you name where Seth Rogen plays a loveable stoner or Denzel Washington calmly asserts himself as a professional badass? Some, like Mike Myers, wallow in their gravy train and gradually slide into irreleance. Others, like Jude Law and post-"Lincoln Lawyer" Matthew McConaughey, break free of weak material and obvious casting and go on to explore richer veins of character acting.
In the last few years, two dramatic actors have paved the way for avoiding viewer fatigue by turning in a wide array of diverse and compelling performances. After breaking into the mainstream with a small role in "Inglourious Basterds" and an incendiary turn as young Magneto in "X-Men: First Class," Michael Fassbender showcased his range as psychoanalyst Carl Jung in "A Dangerous Method," a tortured sex addict in "Shame" and a curious replicant in last summer's "Prometheus." Current Oscar nominee Jessica Chastain also believes in never repeating herself, having embodied idealized motherhood in "Tree of Life" only months before diving into "Zero Dark Thirty" and the mind of a CIA agent obsessed with
So, can McCarthy avoid falling into the exposure trap? Her comedy bona fides are impressive, and it's not as if she materialized out of nowhere. Before the success of "Bridesmaids," shed been quietly paying her dues for the better part of a decade on TV sitcoms like "Gilmore Girls" and the still-running "Mike & Molly." But it was her wacky, winsome performance as bridesmaid Megan that catapulted her into the national spotlight, earning her scores of adoring (and incredibly protective) fans. When New York Observer film critic Rex Reed published a review of "Identity Thief" describing McCarthy as "a female hippo" and "tractor-sized." McCarthy's online following descended to collectively tear him a well-deserved new one.
Reed's cruel and unprofessional comments aside, "Identity Thief" is a lazy, obnoxious belch of a movie that represents the exact sort of project McCarthy would do well to avoid, although it does allow her one scene where her character Diana opens up to Sandy (Bateman), explaining where she comes from and why she has chosen a life of crime.
In context, her tearful confession is completely out of sync with the rest of the film and contributes to its borderline nonsensical third act. The same scene works beautifully, however when viewed as a standalone piece, mostly because of McCarthy's worn-down vulnerability and her undeniable gift for improvisation. That's the Melissa McCarthy I paid to see, and I'd love to see more of her in the future.
Edited by Morgan Said
Miss America making return to Atlantic City this year
ENTERTAINMENT
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. — Miss America, Atlantic City's prodigal pageant, is coming home after a six-year fling in Las Vegas.
The pageant returns to where it started 93 years ago and where it was a fixture until 2006, when organizers moved to Nevada in hopes of attracting a younger TV audience.
"It was always my dream that this would return here," said Art McMaster, president and CEO of the Miss America organization. "We are back to the city where the Miss America pageant began, where the Miss America pageant
was raised, and where the Miss America pageant belongs."
Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson, said having Miss America anywhere but Atlantic City just felt wrong.
"Can anyone separate the Mummer's Parade from Philadelphia, or the Rose Bowl from Pasadena?" he asked. "Miss America is Atlantic City, and she's coming home."
New Jersey's lieutenant governor, Kim Guadagno, made the official announcement Thursday morning inside Boardwalk Hall, the historic arena in which the pageant will take place during yet undetermined dates in September.
Guadagno said no taxpayer money was part of the incentives offered to lure Miss America back to New Jersey. Liza Cartmell, president of the Atlantic City Alliance, said her casino-funded group is among those providing financial incentives, but would not say how much it might contribute.
Guadagno and Cartmell said the return of the pageant is expected to generate at least $30 million in economic activity for Atlantic City and the surrounding region. Cartmell said 6,000 to 7,000 people associated with the pageant will need hotel rooms, meals and other expenditures during their time in Atlantic City.